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Sunday, September 14, 2014

Joe Sample, Crusaders Pianist, Dies at 75

Joe
Sample, who became a jazz star in the 1960s as the pianist with the
Jazz Crusaders and an even bigger star a decade later when he began
playing electric keyboards and the group simplified its name to the
Crusaders, died on Friday in Houston. He was 75.

The cause was mesothelioma, said his manager, Patrick Rains.

The
Jazz Crusaders, who played the muscular, bluesy variation on bebop
known as hard bop, had their roots in Houston, where Mr. Sample, the
tenor saxophonist Wilton Felder and the drummer Nesbert Hooper (better
known by the self-explanatory first name Stix) began performing together
as the Swingsters while in high school.

Mr.
Sample met the trombonist Wayne Henderson at Texas Southern University
and added him, the bassist Henry Wilson and the flutist Hubert Laws —
who would soon achieve considerable fame on his own — to the group,
which changed its name to the Modern Jazz Sextet.

The
band worked in the Houston area for several years but did not have much
success until Mr. Sample, Mr. Felder, Mr. Hooper and Mr. Henderson
moved to Los Angeles and changed their name to the Jazz Crusaders, a
reference to the drummer Art Blakey’s seminal hard-bop ensemble, the
Jazz Messengers. Their first album, “Freedom Sound,” released on the
Pacific Jazz label in 1961, sold well, and they recorded prolifically
for the rest of the decade, with all four members contributing
compositions, while performing to enthusiastic audiences and critical
praise.

In
the early 1970s, as the audience for jazz declined, the band underwent
yet another name change, this one signifying a change in musical
direction. Augmenting their sound with electric guitar and electric
bass, with Mr. Sample playing mostly electric keyboards, the Jazz
Crusaders became the Crusaders. Their first album under that name,
“Crusaders 1,” featuring four compositions by Mr. Sample, was released
on the Blue Thumb label in 1972.

With
a funkier sound, a new emphasis on danceable rhythms and the addition
of pop songs by the Beatles and others to their repertoire, the
Crusaders displeased many critics but greatly expanded their audience.

For Mr. Sample, plugging in was not a big step. He had been fascinated by the electric piano since he saw Ray Charles playing one
on television in the mid-1950s, and he had owned one since 1963. Nor
did he have any problem crossing musical boundaries: Growing up in
Houston he had listened to and enjoyed all kinds of music, including
blues and country.

“Unfortunately,
in this country, there’s a lot of prejudice against the various forms
of music,” Mr. Sample told The Los Angeles Times in 1985. “The jazz
people hate the blues, the blues people hate rock, and the rock people
hate jazz. But how can anyone hate music? We tend to not hate any form
of music, so we blend it all together. And consequently, we’re always
finding ourselves in big trouble with everybody.”

They
didn’t find themselves in much trouble with the record-buying public.
The Crusaders had numerous hit albums and one Top 40 single, “Street Life,”
which reached No. 36 on the Billboard pop chart in 1979. Mr. Sample
wrote the music and Will Jennings wrote the lyrics, which were sung by
Randy Crawford.

By
the time “Street Life” was recorded, Mr. Henderson had left the
Crusaders to pursue a career as a producer. Mr. Hooper left in 1983. Mr.
Sample and Mr. Felder continued to work together for a while, but by
the late 1980s Mr. Sample was focusing on his solo career, which had
begun with the 1969 trio album “Fancy Dance” and included mellow
pop-jazz records like “Carmel” (1979).

His
later albums included the unaccompanied “Soul Shadows” (2008). His last
album, “Children of the Sun,” is to be released this fall.

He
also maintained a busy career as a studio musician. Among the albums on
which his keyboard work can be heard are Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going
On,” Joni Mitchell’s “Court and Spark” and “The Hissing of Summer
Lawns,” Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer,” Steely Dan’s “Aja” and “Gaucho,”
and several recordings by B. B. King.

His music has been sampled on numerous hip-hop records, most notably Tupac Shakur’s “Dear Mama.”

Joseph
Leslie Sample was born on Feb. 1, 1939, in Houston, the fourth of five
siblings, and began playing piano when he was 5. His survivors include
his wife, Yolanda; his son, Nicklas, a jazz bassist with whom he
occasionally performed; three stepsons, Jamerson III, Justin and Jordan
Berry; six grandchildren; and a sister, Julia Goolsby.

In
recent years, Mr. Sample had worked with a reunited version of the
Crusaders and led an ensemble called the Creole Joe Band, whose music
was steeped in the lively Louisiana style known as zydeco. At his death
he had been collaborating with Jonatha Brooke and Marc Mantell on a
musical, “Quadroon,” which had a reading in July at the Ensemble Theater in Houston.

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